Saturday, February 4, 2017

Project update

Poor little Chester, he had 11 teeth pulled. It's over now and he will feel much better. He had a dental cleaning around 4 years ago when I adopted him but I don't think it was very thorough. I went to a different discount vet this time and it cost $325 including pain meds and antibiotics. I'm glad that's over.

Carport conversion to AZ room: $8,000 This is just for enclosing the space with insulation, drywall, and raising the concrete floor above driveway level. Electrical, doors, windows, paint and flooring are extra.

Fix roof edge: $200

It's all very reasonable but I will need to use home equity depending on my timeframe. I'm still emptying my laundry water by bucket because I haven't fixed the leak in the wall which is where the "Move laundry space" item comes from. The trash can water collection system holds exactly two loads of dirty water. I know this because I didn't empty the can after I ran a load and then my nephew did a load and I thought, uh-oh, was there a flood? The water was up to the very tippy top. Whew.

Fixing the laundry drain is first on the list along with fixing the roof but... my sister and her kids are visiting this week so there won't be any construction happening for a while. In the meantime, January's extra mortgage payment is still in my savings account waiting for me to decide. And yesterday I noticed that the mesquite tree growing over the driveway is in desperate need of a trim. I cut off one low branch but I need a professional. That tree is a monster and needs to be thinned or I am afraid it will fall over and take my driveway with it.

So many projects for a home-owner. It keeps me busy. I would get so bored in an apartment with nothing to fix.

It's always hard to know whether to keep aggressively paying off debt or to allow use of those funds for other sort of repairs/upgrades. Tough call, but generally speaking I think mortgage debt is low enough interest that you're getting the money pretty cheap.

Sorry to hear about your pup's teeth, but I bet he'll appreciate having the work done.